Hong Kong's largest floating restaurant, one of the city's most famous landmarks, which is known for its lavish banquet halls and neon lights, capsized after it was towed out into the South China Sea.
The restaurant, which is also known by the name the Jumbo Kingdom, was previously towed from the city last week after it was closed down during the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, it hit adverse weather and capsized near the Paracel Islands, said Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises in a statement, adding that no crew members were hurt.
Jumbo Kingdom Restaurant
The massive 260-foot-long vessel had spent nearly half a century in Hong Kong's waters, playing hot to "numerous international dignitaries and celebrities," including Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise.
The restaurant's parent company previously said that it could no longer afford the cost of maintenance for the vessel. The company needs millions of dollars for inspections and repairs to meet licensing requirements. The city's government, under Chief Executive Carrie Lam, rejected calls to offer temporary financial relief, as per the Washington Post.
In a statement, Lam said that the government clearly indicated that it had no plans to invest money in the operation of the restaurant as they were not good at running such premises. But even before the pandemic, the restaurant, which had served Cantonese fare, was already accumulating debt.
But the Jumbo Kingdom was especially devastated after Hong Kong authorities made the decision to move to ban tourists earlier than other regions. Before it was towed, the restaurant's 130-foot kitchen flotilla snapped off the back of the boat earlier this month, sinking in Hong Kong's Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter.
According to CNN, the restaurant's main boat was traveling to an undisclosed shipyard when the unforeseen incident happened. The vessel sank more than 1,000 meters, which made salvage work "extremely difficult," the statement of the parent company said.
Massive Floating Restaurant
The news of the ship's fate was met with consternation on social media platforms, with many Twitter users bemoaning the inelegant end to one of the city's most recognized historic icons. Some online residents posted art depicting the restaurant underwater, while others shared their farewell messages.
Other people saw the sinking ship as a darkly comic metaphor for Hong Kong's alleged fortunes as it is still largely shut off from the rest of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. It now clings to pandemic restrictions following several years of political turmoil.
The massive restaurant was the main boat of the Jumbo Kingdom, which included an older and smaller sister restaurant boat, a barge for seafood tanks, a kitchen boat, and eight small ferries to transport visitors from nearby piers.
The Jumbo Kingdom was first opened in 1976 by Stanley Ho, a casino tycoon in Macau, and became a tourist magnet for 48 years and served almost 30 million guests since its establishment. The owners of the iconic eatery spent roughly $3.8 million in the 1970s and it was featured in many films, including Jackie Chan's 1985 feature "The Protector" and even a James Bond movie, Independent reported.
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